The present invention relates to a printer management method in a computer system, which controls a plurality of printers connected to a network.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to a printer management system, which controls a plurality of printers connected to a network.
In an environment where a client computer and a plurality of printers are connected in a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or the like, there is a requirement from a client that a print job should be sent to a printer that can execute and complete the print job in the shortest time among the plurality of printers. In order to respond to such a requirement, a technique wherein a status (state) of each printer is acquired and a printer that completes printing in the shortest time is selected based on the status is described in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 5-284263. Furthermore, a technique wherein a warm-up time of each printer is acquired or, when the warm-up time cannot be acquired, temperature information of a fixing heater is acquired to calculate the warm-up time from the temperature information, and a printer with the shortest warm-up time is selected is described in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 11-212743.
Generally, for the purpose of power saving in a printer, when a predetermined time elapses after completion of printing, power is supplied only to a controller that executes a network interface program, and power supply to the other controllers is interrupted, which is called a power save mode. Therefore, in a LAN of general users, printers are not constantly operated, but they are waiting in the power save mode most of the time. Since power is usually supplied only to the controller that executes a network interface program, a status of these printers waiting in the power save mode that the printers are in the power save mode can be acquired, but detail situations of the printers such as temperature of their fixing heaters and the like cannot be acquired. Therefore, an appropriate printer cannot be selected from the printers waiting in the usual power save mode with the techniques described in the aforementioned publications.
An object of the present invention is to provide a printer management system and method, with which a printer can be appropriately selected even when printers are waiting in the power save mode.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printer management system and method, with which printing can be started or completed in the shortest time even when printers are waiting in the power save mode.